ARRL January VHF Contest
Call: AC0RA/R
Operator(s): AC0RA KC0SKM
Station: AC0RA/R
Class: Rover LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 75 25
2: 2 1
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G: 1 1
24G:
-------------------
Total: 78 37 Total Score = 3,145
Club:
Comments:
About a week before the contest I had no plans so I got with KC0SKM to see if he
wanted to do something simple. We decided a few days before the contest we would
venture over in to some rare grids in NE and activate them on 6m. We also
brought Gregg 10ghz system.
Saturday morning Gregg met up at my qth and we quickly put together the 6m rover
and we were on the road headed west. Freshly refueled with McDonalds we started
the contest just after entering NE in EN11. We pulled over for our first stop
after making a few msk144 qsos in motion on 6m in EN11. As Gregg made a 10ghz
qso with W0LGQ I made a few more qsos on 6m and we hit the road again.
As we entered EN01 for our second grid we found another hill and attempted a
10ghz qso with w0lgq but failed this time and the noise was to high to even try
6m so we left with no qsos. We still managed to work 8 MSK144 qsos in motion
from EN01. Our last 2 grids for the evening were DN92 and EN02 both of which we
setup in for about an hour. Then we drove down close to the grid corner of
DN90/91 EN00/01 and found a hotel.
Sunday morning we woke up early and made a quick drive to DN90/91 to make some
more msk144 qsos. Right when we were leaving DN90 for EN00 light rain had
started and we knew our time to escape the encroaching ice storm/blizzard was
running out. We made the quick move to EN00 and I setup the 6m beam we decided
to make 3 qsos and hit the road. Well after 4 qsos in 9 minutes I went out to
collapse the mast and had to break ice. We then quickly headed back for the I80
and headed back home. We made several more qsos while mobile on the way home and
even a few 2m fm qsos as we passes through Des Moines. Also made the only 2 ft8
qsos on 6m from EN31 both on tropo though I did decoded 2 stations from fn20 for
2 sequences via ES.
On the last leg of the trip the rf activity was slowing down and we had noticed
an irregular chirping noise we just could figure out. With the noise at a trip
high I kind of just went into monitoring mode but still made a qso to k2drh on
6m ssb without trouble. As we enter our final grid of EN41 for the rove I looked
for some more qsos with no luck. Right as we were parking the rover in the
driveway we attempted a qso with k2drh. I instantly knew something was up when
we were hearing him and then I looked down and the swr was through the roof.
After jumping out of the truck it was easy to see the 6m antenna decided we
didnt need anymore qsos as part of the feed had broke. Gregg and I looked at
each and at the same time realized now that the odd noise was directly related
to the feed point breaking.
We end the contest with the following ammounts of qsos.
1-10g ssb qso
2-2m fm qsos
2-6m ft8 qsos
2-6m ssb qsos
6-6m msk144 qsos via tropo
65-6m msk144 qsos via MS
Learned alot about the use of MSK144 as a rover and I sure hope some others did
as well. Look forward to the next contest.
73 Wyatt
AC0RA
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